when the wonder pets first came on TV, about two years ago, ella immediately fell in love with them and assigned us each a character--she was linny, rudi was tuck, i was ming-ming. for months she would only answer to linny, and if i forgot and called her ella she would simply ignore me or patiently remind me that her name was linny. during that time she only called me mama when she was asleep.
this show is so well crafted that even the opera singers would sit with ella and watch the videos. the first year, the wonder pets' christmas special was "the wonder pets save the reindeer". in it, the wonder pets get a snowglobe that has their schoolhouse, santa is flying his sleigh overhead and the flyboat is not far behind. all ella wanted that year for christmas was that "snowglove"--it was all she mentioned to santa, and it was the only thing she asked for even after looking thru pages and pages of the target wish book. i looked high and low, in every store in town and online and asked all my friends and i never found one. i reluctantly settled on one that had snowmen roasting marshmallows, an activity she loves, and she was so gracious when she saw it but it was obvious that she was disappointed that santa didn't make her the one she wanted.
my heart was broken. to this day, i am still on the lookout for the snowglobe and if i ever find it, santa will bring it to ella even if it is july. (luckily our tree is up all year so he will know where to leave it).
this year, they (little airplane productions, the makers of the wonder pets) made a new special, "the wonder pets save the nutcracker". as a former professional ballerina who has lived thru many a nutcracker hostage crisis, i normally avoid all nutcracker spin-offs because, frankly, they are usually dreadful. but ella wanted to see the wonder pets special because she has recently developed a love of "knick-knackers" (nutcrackers), and she doesn't have any of the emotional baggage that her mama carries regarding all things "nutty". so we duly set a reminder to watch the world premier, and ella was counting the days until it came.
in the meantime, she saw a little blurb on noggin about making wonder pets ornaments. their website (or rather, the nick jr. website that noggin redirects you to) has templates and a list of materials with instructions on how to make them, and she determined that we would make ornaments so we'd be ready when the christmas show came on. we checked the stash and we had everything we needed, so i printed out the templates and the afternoon of the premier it was time for teamwork--i cut and she glued and we both painted and when we were done, we had the wonder pets.
these are my new favorite christmas ornaments. i esp. love the "sea coins" (sequins) that she carefully and lovingly placed on each one in specific places that she had determined before we even started them.
i am NOT a fan of dumbed-down art made for children, but "save the nutcracker" is not like that at all, it is respectful of tchaikovsky and very entertaining at the same time. if you have a chance, do try to watch this show. i would say it is one of only two derivative nutcrackers i've ever liked. this is a perfect introduction to the ballet, it gives the music a frame of reference that directly corresponds to the ballet (unlike disney's "sleeping beauty" which uses the ballet like incidental music). it is just so rare and exciting to see a ballet not get mangled in the process of making it "accessible". the nick jr. website has more terrific wonder pets crafts and activity sheets to go with this episode, including a song book and some paper ornaments that you can just print and cut.
and now it's back to the search for the snowglobe. i pray i don't end up having to martha one.
